Inside Sprint's Disaster Response Team

One year after Hurricane Sandy, Sprint's emergency response team breaks down how they swing into action after a disaster.

When disaster strikes, communication networks need to come back fast.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and terrorist attacks knock out critical communication systems. And whether you're running a hospital, restoring order, or just trying to get in touch with your family, everybody needs to talk in those first few days.

That's where Sprint's Emergency Response Team comes in. They're the first responders of the wireless industry; they don't care about water, power, or even roads. In 24 hours, they can get voice and data networks back up and running.

Sprint ERT manager Tanya Lin-Jones showed me how the carrier rolls into disaster areas with a three-step solution. Lin-Jones is a fast-talking adrenaline junkie in mirrored shades, helping run a 19-person team scattered around the country and ready to activate 1,100 "reservists" to hop on board and drive the trucks in when needed.

Their weapons: a lead truck with a 15,000-pound winch to pull trees out of the way, packing everything you need to set up a command center in half an hour or less; a SatCOLT, a completely autonomous base station able to pull 25 megabits down from space; and a support truck with a command station and six military-style bunks.

Lin-Jones's team worked 23-hour days recovering from Hurricane Sandy, the 2011 Joplin tornado, fires, and floods. When storms flooded out railway lines in Oregon in late 2007, Sprint's trucks cleared a path 3,000 feet up a mountain to give first responders communications service as they cleared the line.

AT&T and Verizon also have similar teams, Lin-Jones said, and they work together if the government requests it. After Hurricane Sandy, for instance, AT&T and T-Mobile shared their networks so customers of either service could just connect to the closest tower.

Today, on the one-year anniversary of when Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast, take a look at Sprint's disaster-recovery tools in our slideshow. It'd be nice if you never have to see these trucks drive through your neighborhood, but you'll be glad if they do.

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